Nov. 1, 1S6C] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



251 



full and round in form as when they swarmed the 

 estuaries or clothed the verdant slopes and dense 

 jungles of the Carboniferous period, in the full 

 enjoyment of that life which was meted to them by 

 the great Creator. Let us now speak more parti- 

 cularly of the fossil wood alluded to above. These 

 stems are extracted from their matrix with difficulty, 

 and require some care and the exercise of a well- 

 practised eye in their selection for microscopic 

 purposes ; but when secured in good condition, with 

 all their parts complete, they well repay the labour 

 bestowed on them. When cut into thin sections 

 and mounted on a slide, they are valuable to the 

 phyto-microscopist iu assisting him to carry his 

 botanical researches backwards through epochs dim 

 and hoary with age, and in comparing the internal 

 structure of the oaks, elms, beaches, pines, palms, 

 cycads, &c, of the present period with the Lepido- 

 dendrons, Sigillarias, Ulodendrons, Bothodendrons, 

 Knorrias, Calamites, and others, whose dubious 

 forms are links in the long chain of vegetable being 

 evolved since that "beginning" when God said, 

 " Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding 

 seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit, after its kind." 

 The nature and habits of these denizens of primeval 

 forests, as well as their exact position in the vege- 

 table kingdom, are involved in much obscurity, many 

 palaeontologists believing them to have been of 

 low organization. Certaiuly, if apparent simplicity 

 of structure be evidence of lowliness, the assumption 

 has some foundation in truth, many of the specimens 

 showing little more than an aggregation of cellular 

 tissue ; others, however, in addition to this cellular 

 tissue, possess more complexity, and exhibit vessels, 

 or ducts, in considerable variety. In thin cross-sec- 

 tions of some specimens are seen regular alternations 

 of loose cellular and compact vascular tissue, variously 

 marked and arranged, and presenting a stem-within- 

 stem appearance— an internal arrangement of parts 

 quite anomalous, and puzzling alike to botanists and 

 geologists. Probably they have no analogues in exist- 





Fig. 239. Section of Fossil. 



ing types. The accompanying sketch (fig. 239) repre- 

 sents one of the more humble forms, simple in structure 

 and decidedly endogenous. It is therefore possible, 

 that, not only as to species but as to genus, thev 



have become quite extinct, and have left no 

 legitimate heirs to their wide estates. It is tolerably 

 certain, however, that they are allied to the more 

 humble organisms of our present flora,— our reeds, 

 equisctums, ferns, lycopodiums, palms, and pines — 

 John Butter worth, 5, Bridgeicater Street, Oldham. 



THE TEACHING OE NATURAL SCIENCE. 



Tip HE following is an abstract of a paper read 

 -*- before the Social Science Congress by Mr. 

 John Angell, of Manchester. 



The author advocated the teaching of natural 

 science as a fundamental part of juvenile education 

 on the following grounds :— 1. Because of its rela- 

 tion to the structure and organization of the 

 human mind. 2. Because it supplies that know- 

 ledge upon which human well-being, to be secure, 

 must be based. 3. Because its proper study con- 

 stitutes the best juvenile training for the actual 

 business and duties of life ; that is, it forms the best 

 instrument for cultivating and strengthening the 

 observing and judging faculties, upon the power and 

 efficient operation of which mainly depends our pro- 

 gress in life. 4. Because it puts us into practical 

 possession of the natural forces, the proper applica- 

 tion of which supplies us with that abundance of 

 the physical means of well-being which is absolutely 

 necessary to the cultivation of our higher nature, 

 constituting, in fact, a means by which the lower 

 forces of heat, light, electricity, and chemical and 

 mechanical force, are transmuted into the higher 

 form of mental force. 5. Because it puts us into 

 possession of that comparative superabundance of 

 the personal means of physical well-being and of 

 leisure which are necessary for the elevation of the 

 feeble and depraved among our own civilized race, 

 and to the civilization of the savage or barbarous 

 races, that is, to the successful accomplishment of 

 the true objects of philanthropic missionary enter- 

 prise. 6. Because it tends eminently to enlarge 

 and liberalize the mind, to give it faith in the power 

 of truth, and in the moral government of the universe, 

 even in little things, and in the ultimate progress of 

 the human race. 7. Because natural science is God's 

 own exposition (revealed to us through the researches 

 of the human mind) of the powers and agencies by 

 which He regulates His providence in this world. 

 In regard to the first point, he argued that the 

 structure, organization, and qualities of the human 

 mind bear a similar relation to the forces which re- 

 gulate the physical, intellectual, and moral world, 

 that the bodily structure and organization of one of 

 the lower animals bear to its particular habitat in 

 this world ; and that intellectual and moral educa- 

 tion, in its large and philosophical sense, consists in 

 the conversion, under the influence of that divine 

 gift, the human soul, of the various physical forces, 



